Next year my guardian class at the Steiner School out here at Samford will be completing their Independent Research Projects, or IRPs as we like to call them. An IRP is where you spend a year, on top of your normal year twelve studies, researching and completing a project on something that you are interested in. In the past some students have given art exhibitions; written novels; made computers and water purification systems and low orbit unmanned spacecraft (well probably); trained horses and Lord knows how many other wonderful things.
"To do it along side them. To lead by example.To give a shining light and a compassionate shoulder as they whinged and moaned about how hard everything was."
For a busy eighteen year old to pull off something like this is quite an ask and so I decided to give my class as much support as I could by modelling an IRP that a grown up might do. To do it along side them. To lead by example.To give a shining light and a compassionate shoulder as they whinged and moaned about how hard everything was.
Initially, for my IRP, I wanted to create a methane digester. This would have supplied our household with pure sustainable methane gas for cooking and hot water, all made from good old fashioned Lofty Meadows poop.
Then it hit me - what a boring, dunger of an idea sure to be beset by a myriad of technical problems.. Why don't I focus on what goes in rather than what comes out? The yummy, not the bummy stuff?
""most of this food is from our garden..... well except for the butter, chicken stock and flour.""
We have big gardens why not start to get serious about food production? More often than not at meals times we would find ourselves saying "most of this food is from our garden..... well except for the butter, chicken stock and flour."
I was thinking to myself, who needs chicken stock anyway? We all know that oil makes you fat, not to mention all of the strife in the middle east, so why not do without? Cheese? Bread? Delicious mounds of softly melted Ice cream? Pah! It's only for twelve months.
So, this blog is the beginning of part of my practical project next year. Every week I will write a journal entry and post a small video detailing my exploits in trying to feed myself entirely from what grows here at Lofty Meadows. There will be a lot more writing as to why I am doing this, what benefits and problems I can foresee and how the family is coping.
Expect sporadic entries until next year, though there will be planning and prep to report on over the coming months.
So, tell your friends and show some rib till next time.
Dave
